When Sarmento stood on the bow of the ship "Saint-Louis" and searched the sea in the distance with a telescope, and finally saw the strangely shaped stupa-like lighthouse, he immediately shouted to the sailors behind him with great joy.

"In front of China is the port of Tianjin, our voyage has finally come to an end, after going ashore, everyone has a three-day vacation, go to the shore to relax, and those who have no money can first withdraw half a month's salary from Semedo."

"Long live Mr. Sarmento..."The crew of the "Saint-Louis", who had been stunned for a moment, suddenly let out a strange scream, and the ghost cried wolf and howled to compliment Sarmento's generosity.

Sarmento ordered the first mate to signal the ships that followed, and turned back to the captain's cabin, which was on the highest level at the stern. He took the dipping pen from the fixed pen holder on the table, and wrote in his journal, "On the ninth day of the seventh month, one thousand six hundred and thirty years after the arrival of the Son, the fleet arrived at the port of Tientsin, China..."

When six European ships of various sizes appeared outside the port of Tianjin, they immediately aroused the alarm of the coastal defense battalion stationed at the mouth of Tianjin. After a terrible sound of horns, a group of soldiers immediately ran into the battery near the mouth of the sea, aiming the cannon on the battery at the huge fleet.

While ordering the first mate to raise the flag that Chongzhen had given him, Samento ordered the fleet to anchor and stop the ships, showing the friendly gesture of the fleet. After he sent an interpreter to go ashore in a small boat, several lieutenants boarded the "Saint-Louis" in a small boat, and after confirming the identity of the Samento, they finally allowed the Portuguese fleet to enter the Haihe River under the guidance of the pilot they had sent.

When Lu Jiude, the steward of the Tianjin shipyard and the eunuch of Tianjin Town, heard the news of the fleet, he sent a carriage to take Sarmento from the port to his residence.

In a beautifully built garden, Sarmento met the eunuch with whom he had a relationship. Seeing Lu Jiude standing in front of the water pavilion waiting for him, Sarmento stepped forward quickly, took off his hat and bowed to Lu Jiude first, and quickly took out a small leather bag from his arms and sent it to the eunuch's hand.

Lu Jiude was quite curious to untie the rope of the leather bag, and found that there were some colorful stones inside. Sammento immediately explained to Lu Jiude: "These are diamonds from the Indian continent and red and sapphire ore from Ceylon Island, the Ming people's preference for gemstones is different from ours, so I specially brought the raw ore here, and the adults can ask the craftsmen to polish it into their favorite style to play." ”

After listening to the translation of the interpreter, Lu Jiude suddenly said with a smile: "You are also a person with a heart, Princess Isabella has now been canonized as a concubine by His Majesty, since you are loyal to the princess, we are not outsiders."

Since it is my own person, I should not have received your gift, but Your Majesty has just had a pair of children, and the miscellaneous family is trying to find something new for the eldest princess and the second prince to play with.

Come, come, it's so hot today, let's go in and talk. ”

Lu Jiude casually threw the fist-sized leather bag in his hand to the little eunuch who was waiting on the side, and invited Samento to go in with him to talk to the water pavilion.

Entering the interior of the water pavilion, Samento suddenly felt a chill, he carefully looked at it, and found that large square ice cubes were placed in the sandwich walls on the east and west sides of the small hall, and several servants stood by the sandwich wall, pulling the big fan with a very rhythmic movement, blowing the cold air into this small hall facing the lake.

Samento couldn't help but shake his head, even the emperor of the Mughal Empire, Shah Jahan, in mainland India, may not be as enjoyable as the eunuch in front of him. Sure enough, the richest land in the East was still under the rule of the Chinese emperor.

It didn't take long for Sarmento's exclamation to sit down when he was greeted by Lu Jiude. Under the gentle cool breeze, Samento drank a bowl of ice drink, and suddenly felt comfortable all over the body.

Only then did Lu Jiude open his mouth and ask Sarmento, "What kind of goods did you bring with you from India this time?" ”

Seeing that Lu Jiude was so interested in the cargo of the fleet, although Samento was a little uneasy in his heart, he still honestly explained: "According to the request of His Majesty the Emperor to me last year, this time I organized six merchant ships to go to sea before the Sino-Japanese trade fleet in Goa.

Three of them were filled with His Majesty's saltpeter, one with blue and white glaze, one with cotton harvested last year, and one with exotic flora and fauna collected from Africa and elsewhere.

Some plants are not suitable for cold areas, I have already made delivery in Shanghai Port, and I have also received a receipt..."

When Sarmento talks about saltpeter, glaze, and cotton, Lu Jiude does not show much interest. These things were too common to help him return to the capital.

Although the names of the steward of the Tianjin shipyard and the eunuch of Tianjin town sound good, after all, Tianjin is at the foot of the Son of Heaven, and the shipyard is a place that Chongzhen is extremely concerned about, so Lu Jiude does not dare to play any moths here.

For eunuchs like them, the main reason for going out on errands is to seek wealth, and keeping the palace is mainly to seek power. Although Chongzhen greatly changed the ecology of the palace after he ascended the throne, the old habits that have been handed down in the palace for many years are obviously not something that can be eliminated in the short term.

It's nothing more than being honest under the emperor's nose and being arrogant when he goes out. Although guarding Tianjin can also make some extra money, Lu Jiude still prefers power. Therefore, he tried every possible way to transfer back to the capital, and when he saw the arrival of the Sarmento fleet, he naturally wanted to see what overseas novelties could impress the emperor.

However, it was obvious that Sarmento did not understand Lu Jiude's intentions, so he just reported the goods he was carrying step by step. This made Lu Jiude listen a little bored, and it was not until he heard Sarmento talk about the animals he brought that Lu Jiude asked with great interest, "How many good horses have you brought?" What kind of horses are they..."

Under Lu Jiude's continuous questioning, Samento told him the news that he had brought seven good Arabian horses and was three males and four females.

Lu Jiude couldn't sit still for a moment, he took Sarmento and hurried to the dock with him, and immediately became ecstatic after seeing several tall and beautiful horses circled on the side of the dock.

Seeing Lu Jiude's excited appearance, Sarmento was quite uneasy, and he felt that he probably had to contribute a pair of horses to keep the eunuch from trouble.

When Samento was thinking nonsense, Lu Jiude had already turned his head to him and said, "These horses can't be kept here indiscriminately, if one of them is broken, I'm afraid Your Majesty will be furious." In my opinion, it is better for you to take these horses with me to the capital and present them to Your Majesty first. ”

Samento was quite surprised, he didn't think of how to refuse Lu Jiude for a while, so as if he had been kidnapped, he was taken into a carriage by the guards around Lu Jiude, and then let people take the seven Arab horses in the direction of the capital.

Arabian horses have always been known for their kind, intelligent and willingness to please humans, and the seven Arabian horses, which are more than half a head taller than the Mongolian horses and the Hequ horses, although they appear to be a little short-tempered in the constraints of long sea voyages, are soon soothed by the candy and food offered by the horse trainers, and soon accept Chongzhen's approach.

As Lu Jiude expected, the emperor was very happy about the arrival of these horses, but Chongzhen did not treat these horses as his own mounts, but instructed the horse trainers brought by Sarmento to take good care of these horses in Xiyuan Horse Farm first, and then send them to the military horse farm outside the city for breeding after a while.

In order to ensure the safe survival of these horses, Chongzhen also purchased the horseman's freedom from Sarmento and exempted him from slavery.

After admiring these good Arabian horses, Zhu Youzhen took Sarmento to a pavilion in Xiyuan to talk, but Lu Jiude, who wanted to keep up, was stopped by Chongzhen and said: "You have done a good job of escorting the horses, now you go to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to report the situation of the shipyard and Tianjin City, and then go back to Tianjin as soon as possible, and watch the shipyard for me, so as not to make any mistakes..."

Lu Jiude lowered his head and said yes again and again, and with a keen sense of smell, he immediately realized that the emperor was a little annoyed with him, and he suddenly didn't dare to confide in the idea of transferring back to the capital.

After Zhu Youzhen took Sammento to sit down in the pavilion, he asked him casually: "You have put a lot of effort into collecting these good horses, and I want all these horses, so you can make a price." ”

Sarmento thought for a moment, then said with a smile: "When the foreign minister arrived in Tianjin, he heard that Princess Isabella had married His Majesty, and he failed to prepare gifts in a hurry, since His Majesty liked these horses so much, the foreign minister wanted to use them as gifts to congratulate His Majesty and the princess on their marriage. I also ask Your Majesty to accept it. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at him for a long time before he smiled and said, "As the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, I can't accept gifts from my subjects at will, let alone you have traveled thousands of miles to bring Chinese goods.

So tell me what reward you want, and if I can give you, I will receive your gift. If I can't afford it, let's talk about business honestly. ”

Sammento immediately replied with a sneer: "His Majesty the Emperor has such a rich land, and his prestige spreads far and wide, what reward in this world you cannot afford?" The foreign minister gave this gift only to congratulate His Majesty's wedding, and had no other intentions.

But if Your Majesty has a reward, the foreign ministers will gladly accept it, and proclaim your generosity and generosity abroad for Your Majesty..."

Zhu Youzhen interrupted him with a smile and said, "To put it simply, what do you want?" I don't have much time for you to make small talk. ”

Samento immediately changed his words and replied: "The foreign minister hopes that His Majesty can hand over the trade monopoly between China and the Indian continent to the foreign minister, and apart from this small request, the foreign minister has nothing to dare to ask His Majesty." ”

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a long time before he said: "This piece of fat is too big, you can't eat it." In this way, we will restrain Chinese merchant ships from crossing the west of Goa for three years, but private merchant ships will not be subject to this restriction.

In addition, according to your trade volume this year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will sign a three-year trade contract with you, and the amount of the annual order is not less than the transaction amount of this year. Would you like to accept it? ”

Although Chongzhen's request deviated a little from Samento's idea, he didn't think that the fleet he brought this year was not very disadvantageous. This is better than the three years of the sale by His Majesty of the King of the Sino-Japanese navigation trade rights as high as 300,000 sherers, after all, the combined value of seven horses is less than 40,000 sherers.

Sarmento hesitated for a moment, but chose to accept Chongzhen's proposal. After Chongzhen inquired about some news about the Indian continent from him, he asked Wang Chengen to take Sarmento to discuss the details of the fleet's cargo trade with the people of the Four Seas Merchant House.

After Sarmento left, Zhu stood in the pavilion and looked out at the Taiye Pool, thinking about what kind of person the Mughal Emperor, who ascended the throne at about the same time as him, and what influence he would exert on the situation on the Indian mainland.

Although in later generations, Indians seemed to be more middle-class, but in this era, the Mughal Empire, which occupied most of the Indian continent, was not a sick cat.